


Insomnia

by icewhisper



Series: Holiday Cheer & Tears [21]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 11:36:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17099858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icewhisper/pseuds/icewhisper
Summary: “Isn’t that where I left you?” Mick asked when he walked out of his bedroom and saw Len bent over the kitchen table with blueprints spread out around him.





	Insomnia

“Isn’t that where I left you?” Mick asked when he walked out of his bedroom and saw Len bent over the kitchen table with blueprints spread out around him. He had a pen in his hand and another behind his ear.

“I’m going to bed in a minute,” Len said around a third pen he had dangling from between his teeth. “Just gotta finish this.”

“That minute was up five hours ago. It’s six.”

“Oh.”

He shook his head and went for the coffee pot. “You’re gonna wanna take a break if you’re still planning to take Lisa to school,” he pointed out. “You get this obsessive about all your jobs?”

“Detailed, Mick. Not obsessive.”

“Pretty sure that shrink from juvie would disagree.” Len scowled at him, but he dropped all three of his pens and pushed away from the table. Mick heard his back crack as he straightened up and shuddered. “You’re going to be walking like an old man by the time you’re thirty.”

Len waved him off and headed back towards his own bedroom to change. “Don’t touch the papers. I’ve got a system.”

“It looks like a tornado hit!” he called back. “The fuck kind of system is that?”

“Organized chaos.”

“I really hate you sometimes, you know?”

 

 

The thing was, their apartment was tiny. When they’d turned eighteen and Mick’s family had… He hadn’t had anywhere else to go. The rest of his family wouldn’t acknowledge his existence, much less rent him a spare room. Len had been planning to stay at his dad’s until Lisa was older, but Lewis wanted him out and what Lewis wanted, Lewis got.

The apartment was a shitty, month-to-month setup with a dick for a landlord who thought they didn’t notice the rent going up five bucks every month, but it was a roof. Len had his room, Mick had his, and their couch was comfortable enough for when Lisa stayed with them.

It wasn’t as if Mick didn’t know Len didn’t sleep much going into it. He did. He’d had to room with the skinny asshole all through juvie and he’d lost count of how many nights he’d had to deal with Len’s reading light or his fidgeting on the top bunk shaking both their damn beds. By the end of the first week, he’d seriously considered trying to get himself tossed into solitary.

Then, he’d remembered that Len would get himself killed if Mick left him alone for ten minutes.

Len had stayed with him a few times after juvie too – mostly on the nights when Lisa was somewhere away from their dad and Len needed to make himself scarce. He’d mostly lurked around the house then, too.

Mick was…mostly sure he didn’t steal anything.

Not that it mattered now.

He’d just…figured Len would sleep like a normal human being – or his best imitation of one – once he was living somewhere he knew was safe.

“When’s the last time you slept?” Mick asked when he found Len bent over the plans again.

“I’m fine.”

“Doesn’t answer my question.”

Len hummed, considering. Which, really, said enough on its own. “I slept earlier.”

“Sleeping for the twenty minute bus ride from your dad’s to here doesn’t count.”

“It’s still sleep,” Len muttered, irritated. Yeah. Mick had definitely caught him in that lie. “I’m fine.”

“I’m trying to figure out if the black eyes are because you haven’t slept or because of your old man.” Len shrugged like it was probably a bit of both and Mick groaned. “Sleep, Len. You. Need. To. Sleep.”

“I gotta finish this plan,” Len argued. “We’ve got three days before the shipment comes in. They only keep it at the docks for twelve hours before it gets shipped out to Starling. We miss it now, we have to wait six months. I can sleep when I’m done.”

“It’s been three days. You’re going to start hallucinating.”

“When I see pink elephants, I’ll let you know.”

Mick raised his eyes towards the ceiling, breathed, and counted to ten. “I’m making dinner. You’re eating every fucking vegetable.”

“You’re not making carrots, are you?”

“So many carrots.”

 

 

“Len.”

“I’ll go in a minute.”

“ _Bed_ ,” Mick said again as he plucked the pen out of Len’s hand, ignored the indigent _hey!_ , and threw Len over his shoulder. “You’re going to sleep for at least six hours. _Then_ , you can go back to your plans.”

“Mick!”

He dropped Len down onto his bed and shoved him to the side closer to the wall. “Six hours, Len.”

“You’re not sleeping here.”

“It’s this or I put sleeping pills in your coffee.”

Len opened his mouth to argue and paused. “Would that even work?”

“I’m willing to try,” Mick replied flatly. “Six hours, Len.”

“I can barely sleep for two without waking up.”

Mick propped himself up on one elbow, frowning. “You do get that that’s not normal, right?”

“I thought you said nothing about me was normal. How is this news?”

He…had a point. Mick laid back down, careful to not crowd him too much. “Just try, alright? And talk to your damn doctor about that.”

“Dr. Lu?”

“Your primary, Len. Not your shrink.”

“You do get that Dr. Lu is my only doctor, right?” Len asked. “Why would I have another?”

Mick turned is face into his pillow and _groaned_. “For when the rest of your body is fucked up, Leonard.”

“I can do stitches-”

“You go to a hospital for that.”

“-I can wrap up everything else-”

“ _I_ wrap up everything else.”

“-and if I get sick, I just take cold meds until I feel better.”

“Like the last time you got sick and ended up high as a fucking kite?”

“I wasn’t that high.”

“Len, you were literally calling me Mickey and asking where Goofy was.”

“I don’t remember that.”

“Gee, I wonder why,” Mick deadpanned. He made a mental note to make Len get an actual doctor who wasn’t come back alley quack. Given the opportunity, Mick was pretty sure Len would see Herman down in the back room at Saints & Sinners and call it a day. “Just sleep, alright? Six hours. I’ll even bake that cake thing you like.”

(Len managed four hours before he started fidgeting so much, Mick wanted to smother him with a pillow.

He made him cupcakes as a consolation prize.)

The End


End file.
